The present invention relates to cameras and in particular to a portable device for encoding image and sound data directly into a computer recognizable format and saving the encoded image and sound data to a hard disk drive in real time.
Many computer users have a need for relatively low-resolution digital format video images with accompanying audio. Images of this nature are often published on the Internet and/or used for other amateur purposes. To acquire video images in digital form, computer users have in the past used low-quality CCD tethered cameras coupled directly to personal computers. Video images captured by these CCD cameras are sent directly to the personal computers and stored therein in a digital file format such as for example, .AVI or .MPEG formats, without audio accompaniment. Audio may be dubbed onto the digital video data afterwards using special software.
Computer users have also used standard video cameras to capture video images with accompanying audio. The captured video and audio data is then passed through a special device to convert the video and audio data into a format which allows the computer to store the video and audio data as .AVI or .MPEG files. Although this arrangement allows a computer user to acquire video images with accompanying audio in digital form, captured video images must undergo additional processing to place the video and audio data in a computer recognizable format.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a novel device for encoding image and sound data directly into a computer recognizable format and saving the encoded image and sound data to a hard disk drive in real time.
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a portable device for encoding and saving image and sound data comprising:
a housing including operator controls;
a lens on said housing;
at least one microphone on said housing;
processor circuitry within said housing and communicating with said manually operable controls and said at least one microphone, said processor circuitry generating image data and capturing sound data received via said at least one microphone in response to user input made via said operator controls, said processor circuitry including an encoder to encode the image and sound data directly into a computer recognizable format; and
a hard disk drive within the housing on which encoded image and sound data is saved.
In a preferred embodiment, the processor circuitry includes an image processor and a main processor. The image processor includes a digital image sensor receiving light via the lens and an image data encoder to encode digital image data output by the image sensor. The main processor includes a sound data encoder to encode sound data captured by the at least one microphone that accompanies the image data. The main processor receives the encoded image data from the image processor and stores the encoded image data and accompanying encoded sound data as a file to the hard disk drive in real time.
In one embodiment, the image data encoder includes a video decoder to digitize image data input into the device from an external source and an MPEG codec to encode image data from the image sensor and as well as digital image data output by the video decoder. Preferably, the MPEG codec can be conditioned to either a high or low resolution mode in response to user input made via the operator controls. In each of these modes, the image processor encodes continuous image data. It is also preferred that the MPEG codec can be conditioned to a still capture mode in response to user input made via the operator controls. In the still capture mode, the MPEG codec encodes discrete image frames.
In a preferred embodiment, the main processor includes an audio encoder communicating with the at least one microphone for digitizing sound data received via the at least one microphone. The main processor also includes a central processing unit executing MPEG encoding software for encoding the digitized sound data received from the audio encoder.
Preferably, the image processor is disposed on a first board within the housing and the main processor is disposed on a second board within the housing. The hard disk drive is sandwiched between the first and second boards in a compact arrangement.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided in combination, a portable device for encoding and saving image and sound data and a base station including a processor and a removable hard disk drive on which data saved by said device may be downloaded and saved, said device comprising:
a housing including operator controls;
a lens on said housing;
at least one microphone on said housing;
processor circuitry within said housing and communicating with said manually operable controls and said at least one microphone, said processor circuitry capturing image data and sound data in response to user input made via said operator controls, said processor circuitry including an encoder to encode the image and sound data directly into a computer recognizable format;
a hard disk drive within the housing on which encoded image and sound data is saved; and
at least one output port for coupling to said base station to allow encoded image and sound data saved to said hard disk drive to be downloaded to said base station.
The present invention provides advantages in that image and sound data is encoded directly into a computer recognizable format and saved on a hard disk drive in real time. As a result, a significant amount of sound and image data may be saved by the device. The hard disk drive is accessible by a host such as for example, a personal computer or base station, to allow sound and image data saved to the hard disk drive to be downloaded to the personal computer or base station in a quick and convenient manner.